


A Parting Word

by budgewrites



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-09 12:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20994977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/budgewrites/pseuds/budgewrites
Summary: It was the last time they were together, the three of them.





	A Parting Word

It was the last time they were together, the three of them.

The carriage ride east was quiet, but not in the comfortable, lazy way it usually was. Lust's shoulders were drawn in, arms folded as she watched the trees go by. Envy was on the bench across from her, sprawled out and picking at his nails. Gluttony's gaze cast nervously between them from time to time, but he spent much of the ride staring out the back window, watching the valley village get smaller and smaller until it disappeared into the rural edges of southeastern Amestris.

“I’m splitting off once we reach East City. Sloth’ll be there with the whole entourage by tomorrow night. She’ll have orders for you."

He held a slip of paper between two fingers, crumpled from being carried in bare hands. Lust took it, ignoring the address written on it for now and not breaking her morose glare out the window. There was still blood crusted in the lines of her hand, caked under her fingernails. The ghostly skin of her palm did nothing to hide it. She needed to bathe. This was why she never killed so close. But it had happened so quickly— 

“So are you gonna tell me what happened?”

Envy's curiosity was born more out of boredom than any concern. Lust folded her arms, once again hiding the offending hand from sight.

"A man touched me," she offered. It was true, if lacking details. Lujon had reached for her. Held her. It had been warm under his coat, and his hands hadn't wandered. They never had.

Envy snorted.

"You can't even lie anymore." He busied himself picking at a splinter in the coach door. Lust's cold eyes finally turned in Envy's direction.

"I was cleaning up an old mess, if you must know."

"Yeah? Because you reek."

"It wasn't as smooth as I would have liked." Also technically true. Envy's fingers paused against the door as he challenged Lust's stare. 

"No kidding. You were gone all day, and I had to keep stuffing his face so he'd shut up about it," he added with a nod toward Gluttony.

Lust's pursed her lips. Gluttony was contentedly kneeling on the bench next to her now, pressed lightly against her shoulder as he watched the road disappear behind them. Envy set his brow, watching Lust in silence before continuing.

"Don't think I forget what happened here two years ago. I covered your ass when you blew it and ran off. I'm not doing it again."

"Well clearly it's over now, Envy," she snapped.

The clatter of the loose road beneath them was suddenly deafening. The whole damn town would die. Just as the contingency they agreed upon said it would. It would be days before anyone in the surrounding area even noticed.

Envy raised his eyebrows, unfolding his legs to stretch nonchalantly across the bench.

"Don't get snippy with _ me _. If you can't take care of liabilities without throwing a fit, she's gonna put you on a shorter leash."

Something cold squeezed in Lust's throat. 

"And where is she now?"

"Beats me." Envy's shrug was awkward from his slumped position across from her. "She dumped the old hag's body and left Dublith. Didn't say where she'd be."

Lust's eyes narrowed. She didn't say, or he wouldn't tell her? She liked to think she had Envy's word, but was she really supposed to believe that Master had said nothing pertaining to her destination?

"Just don't do anything stupid until things settle down again," he added.

"Since when are you my keeper?"

"Since you started mumbling bullshit about the nature of life and death over breakfast." Envy snickered quietly and resumed his work picking at the door.

"You don't think about it at all?"

He couldn't possibly just ignore it. Some humans had their own ideas about what happened when life ended, but how was she to know her place in it all when the books had proven themselves wrong time and time again?

Tiny taps of raindrops began to hit the windows.

"Why would I?" Envy's tone made it clear he wasn't taking the question seriously.

"We all have to die someday." Wasn't that the goal, in some convoluted way? Human beings were so horribly fragile, and even if they survived to old age, they still withered away. Lust idly traced the lines of blood on her palm.

"No we don't."

She looked up, startled by Envy's abrupt certainty. Of course they did. Even if they perished before achieving what they sought, death was still death. Would they simply cease to be, absent of whatever longevity of spirit that made a human being so damn special? 

Drizzles turned to rain, invisible to the fall of night but isolating in such a small carriage. Lust couldn't remember how long they had traveled, or how long their journey was supposed to last. 

_ Why, _ he had asked her. Why did she ever come to this valley? Why was it him that she handpicked, groomed to be his village's glowing savior? Why had she vanished so suddenly, only to turn up for the first time in two years?

She knew all of those answers. They were simple motivations. Matters of cause and effect. Orchestrated far beyond anything Lujon could have guessed on his own. She had tried to tell him, hadn't she? Warned him not to look for answers?

Why did she kill him?

But there. There, a gaping void ate at her mind where the answer ought to have rested. Lust peered out the window again, but her eyes slid from focus. There had been that moment before she'd cut him down, a memory unlike the others, pain like she'd been pulled apart and turned inside out, like something had reached into the very core of her and torn everything out. 

_ He _ had been there again. The man with the worn glasses and warm eyes. Only he was different too, now. He was scared of her, running away from her. She had screamed for him and it hadn't mattered. He just ran...

"Oi!"

Envy's voice yanked Lust to the surface. Back to the carriage. Back to the rain. He was staring at her with a mask of shock and disgust. She was still, eyes wide as the darkness battered at the corners of her mind like waves on her ankles. 

Why did he leave?

Why did it matter?

Slender streams trailed down her cheeks, and Lust recognized something like panic as she sat in petrified silence. Tears had only spilled over for a heartbeat of a moment, but the damage was done. She didn't reach to wipe them away, shoulders thrown back and chin tipped down in defiance. Shame unfurled in her throat, anger in her chest. She refused to acknowledge Envy.

"Listen to me."

It was the first time he had spoken with any sliver of sincerity since they had been reunited, but Envy's honesty was not to be mistaken for kindness.

"_Listen to me, _" he snapped, somehow still low but twice as dangerous, and Lust dared to meet his eyes. Her lips twisted in a scowl. Gluttony shifted beside her, watching in gentle silence.

"I don't care what you keep seeing. I don't care who it is. I don't care what it is."

Lust's mouth opened, but no words would come out. She hadn't told him about the memories. About the things she saw, the man with the glasses, the boy with the sad smile, the bedroom, or the tree by the hillside…

"But if you don't stop letting them come, they're going to kill you."

The rain, the wagon, the whole world could have stopped and Lust wouldn't have noticed. Her jaw squeezed so tight that it hurt, and the ice that had trickled up her throat since the sun had set threatened to strangle her.

"I've tried—"

"_Try harder._"

Lust swallowed, forced back the burning which had tempted her better sense since she'd caught a glimpse of that damn human from across the street. Envy's eyes still refused to wander, locked on her in a silent tug of war.

The carriage slowed to a stop.

It was Envy who broke the veil of fearful silence. Shoved the door open with enough force that it swung it around and smacked the broadside of the cart.

"I've got a train to catch."

As quick as candle dying in a draft, the bored loll of his head and droop of his eyes had returned as he rested a hand against the door he'd spent their ride picking at. His blank stare drifted to Lust. Then to Gluttony, still meek in his presence. Then back to Lust.

He slammed the door.

What a waste.


End file.
